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EDGARTOWN DIVISION. 



ARGUMENT 



HON. CHARLES R. TRAIN 



THE COMMITTEE ON TOWNS. 



IN BEHALF OF 



THE PETITIONERS, FOR AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE 

NORTHERN PART OF EDGARTOWN (oAK BLUFFS, 

VINEYARD GROVE, ETC.) AS A NEW TOWN. 



TO BE CALLED 



COTTAGE CITY, 



BOSTON, FEBRUARY 14, 1879. 



BOSTON : 

foanti, Slberg, & (Co., printers to ttje (Eommanfocaltlj, 

117 Franklin Street. 
1879. 



EDGARTOWN DIVISION. 



ARGUMENT 

HON. CHARLES R. TRAIN 



THE COMMITTEE ON TOWNS, 

IN BEHALF OF 

THE PETITIONERS, FOR AN ACT TO INCORPORATE THE 

NORTHERN PART OF EDGARTOWN (OAK BLUFFS, 

VINEYARD GROVE, ETC.) AS A NEW TOWN, 

TO BE CALLED 



COTTAGE CITY, 



BOSTON, FEBRUARY 14, 1879. 



BOSTON : 

ftanto, &berg, & Co., printers to tfje Commonfoealtlj, 

117 Franklin Street. 
1879. 



^<1 






/ 



CLOSING ARGUMENT 

OF 

HON. CHARLES R. TRAIN 

FOR THE PETITIONERS. 



Boston, Feb. 14, 1879. 
Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen, — It would be folly in me if I 
undertook to disclaim any familiarity with legislative affairs. I con- 
fess to some experience in matters of legislation. I think I appre- 
ciate my own position, the position of those I represent and of the 
committee whom I address ; and I assume that you understand that 
you are performing the highest duty which can be intrusted to a 
citizen under the Constitution and law. We are not in a police 
court, or in a justice's court, or in the Superior Court, or in the 
Supreme Judicial Court ; but we are in the great and General Court, 
which is the highest tribunal of the Commonwealth. And we are 
here in the performance of the highest duties which we owe the Com- 
monwealth. The people come here and ask the Legislature to enact 
laws under the Constitution. And what does the Constitution say is 
the duty of the Legislature in this regard? Why it says in art. 4 
of chap. 1, upon the legislative power, that you shall make, ordain, 
and establish all manner of wholesome and reasonable orders, laws, 
statutes, and ordinances, as you shall judge to be for the good and 
welfare of this Commonwealth, and not repugnant to the Constitution 
thereof. And this Commonwealth, I need not say, passes beyond the 
limits of the island of Martha's Vineyard, and reaches every citizen, 
every man, woman, and child within its limits ; and it is your sworn 
duty to legislate for the whole of them, -to the best advantage of 
the whole of them. 

Now, then, laying down that proposition, that the Legislature is to 



legislate for the general welfare of the whole people, what is your 
duty as the committee of both Houses? Why, it is your duty to 
shape, to consider, and to prepare the legislation which you will 
report to your two branches ; and that involves a careful considera- 
tion of facts, a careful consideration of law, and a report which shall 
guide and govern the Legislature in its action. I am free to say, after 
an experience in legislation which began in 1847, that it is seldom, 
and it ought to be less frequent, that the Legislature go against the 
report of a committee, because in the committee-room, with time and 
consideration and discussion, the committee get a better appreciation 
of the subjects we submit to them for their consideration than the 
Legislature can by any debate. Therefore I am anxious, I desire, 
and I shall insist, that the petitioners whom I represent here to-day 
shall receive a favorable report at your hands upon the evidence and 
upon the precedents. 

My friend, Mr. Bowman, yesterday insisted that this was a case 
without a precedent. Well, I am not disposed to contradict him. It 
is not necessary that I should controvert that proposition. There 
always is a time when the first precedent is established. I believe in 
precedents as much as my brother upon the other side ; but I have , 
learned that the precedent which I find in the decision of an Irish 
court, made five hundred years ago, is of very little value to-day in the 
courts of Massachusetts. Times change, and men change with them. 
While your precedent follows the change, it is of value ; but, when the 
circumstances have changed, your precedent ceases to be of any 
value. Now the precedent here is wanting. Why? Because, in the 
history of the Commonwealth, probably no such community was ever 
founded as you will find to-day or next summer in Cottage City. 
But, because there is no precedent, are 3-011 not to legislate ? On the 
contrary, because a new state of affairs has arisen, you are to legis- 
late to meet exactly the condition of things which has arisen in the 
progress of events. Because a new disease has broken out in the 
community, the hospitals are not to be shut up, the apothecaries' 
shops are not to be cleaned out, and the doctors to be hanged ; but we 
are to find a remedy for that disease. Now we have here upon the 
territory which we ask you to incorporate a state of facts which 
never existed before, so far as I know, in this Commonwealth. We 
have a population — a resident population — of 502 on the first day 
of this month. 

The Chairman. Do you mean a resident population within Cot- 
tage City ? 



Mr. Train. Within the territory which we ask you to incorporate 
into a new town. Nobody has assailed my figures ; and I assume that 
they are correct, — a resident population of 502. Well, now what is 
remarkable about that population is, that it is a representative popu- 
lation. There are upon that territory, adults entitled to vote, 132. 
There were last year 96 voters. My brother upon the other side 
claims this year 75 or 76. I don't care which wa}' he takes it. I 
have a right to every man as a representative man who has a right to 
register and to vote at the annual election. There are therefore 132 
representative men. Who do they represent ? Well, in the first 
place, they represent their own families, — their wives and children. 
And the resident population I assume to be something like 600 
people. I gave you 150 families the other day. Allowing 5 people 
to a family would give you 750 individuals. Well, now, what 
brought them there ? Twenty years ago there were not 20 people 
on that territory, if I understand it. The laud was not worth talking 
about. Somebody testified here that he hired the whole laud pur- 
chased by one of the land companies for a dollar a year. What 
brought this resident population of 750 upon this territory ? Why, it 
was the desire of religious people — starting first with the Methodist 
denomination — to find a place where they could for a short period, 
away from the troubles and turmoils of this world, devote themselves 
to the worship of God, cultivate their spiritual graces, and return to 
their worldly duties refreshed and invigorated in body and soul by so 
doing. 

Now, my friend yesterday took occasion to say that all this result 
was accomplished by Edgartown, — that Edgartown did all this. 
And I suppose he would give my old friend, Mr. Vincent, the Regis- 
ter of Probate, the credit for all the spiritual progress and all the 
carnal progress that has been made upon that territory for the last 
twenty years. Well, Mr. Vincent is a very clever old gentleman. I 
have known him for a good while. I wish I was younger, so that I 
should not have known him so long. And he has a weakness about 
this camp-meeting. And the trouble was, that, when my friends 
upon the other side set him agoing, they could not stop him ; and if 
they had not taken him on to the steamboat, and carried him back to 
Martha's Vineyard, he would have been talking now. Mr. Vincent 
was an element in this pi'Ogress undoubtedly, because it began by 
a little association of the Methodists upon the Vineyard ; but the 
Methodists from the main found that this was a desirable place for 
their purposes, and so they went over upon the Vineyard. And from 



6 

that has grown up this community, representing the people who con- 
gregate there, of the best people in this country, and of all religious 
denominations, — Methodists, Baptists, Orthodox, Universalists, Uni- 
tarians. They all go there, and they are all the better for going 
there. And the more they get together, and rub the sharp points off 
of the bony structure of their theology, the better it is for them, and ■ 
the better it is for everybody. 

Upon this territory there are 1,200 people, or thereabouts, who own 
cottages, and for a longer or shorter period in every year reside there. 
That was the only one of the elements in my statistics that my 
friends upon the other side undertook to controvert. We have gone 
over them carefully since ; and we find that there are, instead of 1,200 
taxed in Cottage City, of all classes of buildings, 1,058. 

Mr. Bowman. Tents and every thing else, — barns. We made a 
count last week, and it was 799. 

Mr. Train. We made a count too. It don't make any difference. 
There are houses enough there to accommodate a resident population 
of 8,000 people whenever they choose to occupy them. And for a 
short period, during the camp-meeting week, the population reaches 
to the number of 30,000. Well, 30,000 people are a good many 
people : 30,000 people are almost as many people as live in South. 
Boston or East Boston or Somerville, or a great many other towns 
that I could name. And it is pretty difficult for us to comprehend the 
wants of 30,000 people aggregated together there for a period of 
time ; the needs of the resident population ; the needs of the transient 
people ; the protection which they need by way of police, by way of 
protection against fire, by way of sanitary measures and regulations. 
We have proved the want of an adequate police, of an adequate pro- 
tection against fire, and the entire absence of any measures or regu- 
lations for the protection of the health of these people. A few police- 
officers, appointed by the selectmen of Edgartown, alike unknowing 
and unknown, are no terror to evil-doers, either local or transient. 
A couple of chemical engines, in case of conflagration, would only 
provoke the derision of the devouring element ; and these are private 
property, and with no competent men to work them at that, and in a 
locality so circumstanced, that, if a fire gets well under way, every 
building in Cottage City must be destroyed. I remember once, in 
1862, calling upon Secretary Stanton, telling him I wished to go on 
to Gen. Gordon's staff for a little service. It was just after the sec- 
ond battle of Bull Run, and Gen. Gordon had come into Washing- 
ton without any staff, and he wanted me to go and help him. It was 



during the adjournment of Congress, and I was disposed to go and 
do what I could for nvy country. I went up to Secretary Stanton, and 
said to him: "Mr. Secretary, I want a commission of some kind, 
because I want to go through the Maryland campaign with Gen. Gor- 
don ; and, if I should happen to be taken prisoner, I want to be sub- 
ject to the right of exchange." , Said he: ".Air. Train, I tell 30U 
what I wish you would do. I wish you would go home to Massachu- 
setts, and raise a regiment ; and, if you will, I will give you a commis- 
sion as colonel to-morrow morning." Said I: " Mr. Secretary, if I 
was competent to put a thousand men in the field, and take care of 
them after I got them there, I would resign my seat in Congress, and 
accept 3'our commission in an instant ; but I am afraid to take that 
responsibility. I don't know how to take care of masses of men ; and 
they would get sick, and the}- would die, and I should die of seeing 
them die." Now apply that in a small way to a population of 
30,000 people aggregated upon 3,000 acres and lots of land in Mar- 
tha's Vineyard during the months of July and August or September, 
— two or three months as the case may be, — and see what a respon- 
sibility there is upon somebody in that regard, — in a sanitary regard, 
I mean. You remember what Capt. Damrell and the other witnesses 
said upon this subject. There is no system of sewerage and no 
sewerage for Cottage City, no sanitar}' regulations, and never have 
been ; and, if the present condition of affairs shall continue much 
longer, Cottage City will be exposed to an epidemic as fatal as was 
the yellow-fever, in 1878, in the city of Memphis. Now this thing is 
to grow, or it is to die out, just accordingly as you shall incorporate 
this town or refuse to do so. I assume that here is an enterprise 
which, in the language of the Constitution, is for the common welfare, 
and that you are going to legislate for it ; and that you are going to 
legislate in such a way as that the permanent population, — the popu- 
lation who own property there, and spend months there, — and the 
transient people who come there and spend a week or ten clays, are to 
be cared for and provided for. I assume that, because I know that 
you intend to act faithfully, and as wise legislators, for the interests 
of all the people of the Commonwealth. 

Now, then, what is to be done? How is that to be accomplished? 
I submit, with great respect to the committee, and to my friends upon 
tiie other side, that that is not to be accomplished by placing these 
people under a government, — a local government seven miles away, 
and the weakest government at that known in our State. I believe 
in towns myself. I think everybody who has read the political history 



of this country, and compared it with any other, — who has com- 
pared the political history of New England with any other section of 
the Union, — will say that a New-England town is the pride and 
glory of human government. I was brought up in a New-England 
town ; I have held its offices ; and, as a mode of education, a New- 
England town meeting is worth as much as the schools, — grammar 
schools, high schools, and every thing else. There is nothing like it, 
except the Legislature of Massachusetts ; and the character of the 
Legislature of Massachusetts, which is higher to-da}* than that of any 
other legislative body, grows out of the fact that you are all educated 
in a New-England town meeting. I had rather go into a town meet- 
ing on the first Monday in March, to legislate for the people there, 
than to go into the Congress of the United States. Every thing is 
done with propriety, ever}- thing is discussed understandingly, and 
every man's rights are cared for. Whether they have a lobby about 
the town meeting, I never heard. Perhaps the}* have in Somerville ; 
but I don't think they have in the country towns. 

Now I say, Mr. Chairman, that these people whom I represent 
to-day cannot be cared for ; and this enterprise must eventually be 
abandoned, unless 3*011 give them an act of incorporation, so that 
the}* can care for themselves upon their own territory. The village 
of Edgartovvn and three-quarters of the voters of the town are 
seven miles distant. The officers are seven miles distant, and must 
always be so, as the sand and marsh which separates Edgartown 
village from Cottage City forbids a nearer relationship ; and such a 
government at such a distance is entirely inadequate for the people 
whom I represent. 

Well, my friend says it is without a precedent. In one sense it 
is. Therefore we will make a precedent. When there is no prece- 
dent, we make one. Here is a valuation of $1,197,435 upon the 
territor}* which we ask you to set off" from Edgartown. It is occu- 
pied by the number of voters, and by the permanent population, which 
I have already given you ; but they own a very small share of that 
valuation. The people who are really pecuniarily, financially inter- 
ested in Cottage Cit}* live there but a short period of the 3*ear ; and 
yet to them it is the most interesting period of the whole year in their 
lives. It docs more for their health, for their comfort, for their 
spiritual growth, than all the rest of the year. Now, then, these 
non-residents arc the people who come here and ask you to incorporate 
this town. And why do they do it? The answer, to my mind, is 
plain enough. The permanent residents upon this territory are the 



people who have gone there to supply the wants of the non-residents 
when they are there during the summer months, and to watch over 
and protect their property when they are away during the rest of the 
year ; and the interests of the resident population upon this territory 
and of the non-resident population are identical. But for the non- 
residents, the residents would starve to death, and everybody on 
Martha's Vineyard would starve to death, I guess. At- any rate 
they have got to hunt up some new employment. There are a few of 
my old friends, like Capt. Jernegan and Mr. Osborne, who earn a 
few dollars up here lobbying during the winter; but what the rest of 
them do, the Lord only knows. The}" live on what they have saved. 
I am sony for them ; but they are an enterprising people, and where 
there is a will there is a way. 

Now I agree that such a condition of things is without precedent ; 
and I say, therefore, you must make a precedent, and you must pro- 
tect this property and these people in this way, or the whole amount 
of money which has been invested within the limits of Cottage City 
must be sunk, and will be sunk. 

Now it is remarkable, I think, very remarkable, — for I know the 
enterprise and the ability of my friends on the other side, not onby 
the counsel, but my friends from Edgartown, who are versed in the 
ways of the world as well as in the wa} r s of the Church, ; — very re- 
markable, that there is not a non-resident remonstrant to this applica- 
tion : I don't know of one. If my friends can point him out, I would 
like to see him, — pay something for him as a curiosity. 

My friend, Mr. Bowman, had the audacity yesterday to argue for 
two mortal hours that this was an application for minorities, and that, 
if you reported a bill, you would report it upon the application of 
minorities. I say it was not true, with great respect to him. If it 
were, that is no reason why you should not legislate. Minorities 
have rights in New England that majorities are bound to respect ; 
but the great burden of my brother Bowman's argument yesterday 
was that this was an application in behalf of minorities. I say the 
argument is not true ; and that reminds me that the argument of my 
friend, therefore, was not beautiful. The French rhetoricians have a 
maxim that nothing is beautiful that is not true. Therefore I say to 
my brother upon the other side that his argument was not beautiful 
because it was not true, and I would much prefer to stand at the 
muzzle of such a wind-gun than to stand behind it and fire it otf. 

But to come back to the question of minorities : the petitioners, 
non-resident petitioners, represent $354,570 ; the resident petitioners 



10 

include $108,350, — making $462,920. The amount of property 
represented b} r the remonstrants in Cottage Citj^, including their inter- 
est in the land corporations, is $56,650. How is that? The amount 
of property represented by the remonstrants in the old town, after di- 
vision, is $382,535. But every remonstrant here is from Edgartown. 
And the reason is obvious enough, and they are honest enough, or 
else they cannot help telling it when the question is put to them, to 
say that it is purely with them a pecuniary question. My old friend, 
Mr. Dunham, the last witness that was called, — I put that very ques- 
tion to him, and he said if he lived in Cottage City he should go 
for division. Yes, of course he would. Well, now, we have got 
$571,270 represented here asking for this change, if I have made no 
mistake. 

I took Mr. N orris's figures, made up to the night before last ; and 
the non-residents amount to $354,570, the residents to $108,350, 
— making $462,920. Now you have got upon the territory $56,650, 
and you assume that all the others are opposed to this change; 
whereas I assume that "silence gives consent." Now it cannot be 
claimed that there is a man interested in Cottage City, excepting the 
Edgartown men, that is opposed to this division. I know of people, 
in Canada who are interested in lots down there, and spend their 
summers there. I cannot' get them to come here and testify ; but 
they are entitled to protection, and we want them to come just as 
much as they want to come, and they are entitled to consideration 
at your hands just as much as the resident population are. And why 
should they not be considered? Now, as against $462,920, we have 
the beggarly sum of $56,650, which includes the interest which the 
gentlemen in Edgartown have in the stock of the land corporations 
upon that territory. I know whereof I affirm ; and I understand 
that I shall be subject to criticism, and I am willing to take it. This 
is a better showing than ever was made before upon an application 
for the division of a town, I venture to say, in the whole history of 
the legislation of Massachusetts. I have not applied the mathematics 
to it; but my belief is, that we hold more than four-fifths in favor of 
the change, as against one-fifth which is owned by remonstrants who 
live in Edgartown. 

Mr. Bowman. One-fourth by your own figures, Mr. Train. 

Mr. Train. I claim the whole valuation, less $56,650. 

Mr. Bowman. You claim all the silent people? 

Mr. Train. Yes. The land companies are not represented here. 
They have not been asked to sign a petition. I don't suppose, how- 



11 

ever, they dared to ask them. If they had been asked, they might 
not have signed, because they may have some private axes to grind, 
which might be interfered with if they had, and this application 
failed. Of the land companies, there are 200 shares taxed at 
$91,325 ; and the remonstrants own 74 shares, — all Edgartown men. 
Of the Vineyard Grove Company there are 150 shares, $22,400. 
The remonstrants own 17 shares of that. Now, to be added to this 
property is the property represented by the Baptist people who have 
recently gone in there, represented by Deacon Lamson of Shelburne 
Falls, whose name is not on the petition ; but he is one of those 
gentlemen to be included in Mr. Bowman's charge of lobbying, as 
he has the incorporation of Cottage City much at heart. 

Now, then, I want this committee to tell me, upon their official 
responsibility, why a community that comes here upon the showing 
which we have made should not have an act of incorporation. In 
the first place, I declare it here to-day as my opinion, and I believe 
it is the opinion of every wise legislator, that it is good polic3 r to 
increase the number of towns in our State just so often as a new 
town can be incorporated and administered better than the people 
set off can be governed within the limits of the old town. Political 
considerations do not enter into the question now, as they did when 
I was a young man. When I first came to the Legislature, there were 
between six and seven hundred members in the House. Every town 
was represented ; and I am free to say that I should not be sony if 
it were so to-day. I don't think the Commonwealth would lose any 
thing by the extra expense of paying for the additional number. 
But politically the question is not affected, because you vote in dis- 
tricts for representatives ; you vote in districts for senators. Your 
State and county tax is not affected by it ; and the only question is 
one of municipal administration. Now, then, when you can create 
a new municipality without injury to the old municipality, with a fair 
number of voters, with an amount of intelligence that shall enable 
them to administer the new town successfully, and a valuation that 
shall enable them to administer the new town successfully, you should 
do so, and thus add another to these institutions of the Common- 
wealth which you love, and which yon want to cherish. 

I claim, Mr. Chairman, that we have proved a case. If I re- 
member Mr. Bowman's first proposition, it was that we must prove 
a case. How are we to prove a case? Well, we are to prove a 
case by showing, first, that our necessities require an act, and that 
we have an intelligent population that can manage municipal affairs ; 



l"#fC. 



12 

next, by showing that we have valuation enough to administer muni- 
cipal affairs without burdening the tax-payers ; and, third, that we do 
not injure the municipality from which we propose to withdraw. 
That last proposition is to be taken with a qualification ; and that is 
this, — that if the benefit to be derived from the new incorporation 
exceeds the injury which would be suffered by the old corporation, 
then the new corporation is to be created. The history of this divis- 
ion of towns is familiar to everybody. My experience goes back as 
far as 1846, and began with the incorporation of the town of Ash- 
land, which was four miles from Hopkinton, and four miles from 
Framingham, and four miles from everywhere ; and they wanted to be 
incorporated because they were a little village upon the Boston and 
Worcester Railroad it was then (Boston and Albany now), utterly 
distinct from all the other towns with which the}' were connected. 
They never went to town meeting except to vote for representative ; 
and they had a great fight, and they got incorporated finally ; and 
now Ashland is one of the most flourishing towns that you will ride 
through, Mr. Chairman, as you go out to Albany upon that road. 
Four miles was the limit there. Take any other town ; take Everett ; 
take my brother Bowman's own town, Somerville. Can anybody, 
tell me why Somerville should have been incorporated particularly? 
Its business was all in Boston. Its politics were all in Charlestown, 
and have been ever since. But they were up there upon three hills, 
— Spring Hill, Winter Hill, and Summer Hill, I guess, — any hill; 
and they wanted to be incorporated, and it was a wise thing to do ; 
and the municipality grew, finally became a city, and is certainly a 
city of which Brother Bowman is proud, as it is proud of him. 

Take Everett; take Norwood ; take an}' of* these towns. The his- 
tory of applications of this character is that the petitioners come to 
the Legislature, and fight on until they finally accomplish the result ; 
and, if my friend will point me to a single instance where the parties 
petitioning for a new town have not eventually succeeded, I would 
like to know it as a precedent. I have not been able to find one. and 
don't believe there is one. It costs my clients something to come to 
the Legislature and go through this hearing ; and it costs them more 
than it does the Edgartown people, because they have to share in the 
expense of Edgartown, and to pay Brother Bowman and pay me too. 
The}* don't come here except upon a public pressure, which means 
business, means n want, means a necessity, means a determination. 
That want, that pressure, is found in the fact that we pay eleven- 
eighteenths of the tax of Edgartown, for which we receive substan- 



13 

tially no return ; that, when we go to a town meeting in Edgartown 
and ask a favor, we go as a minority, and therefore suppliants ; and 
that we can get nothing, unless we give to Edgartown proper the 
lion's share. 

My friend said yesterday that Edgartown was the father of this in- 
fant, and then talked about the land companies. Edgartown people 
were very anxious to take stock in the land companies ; but I never 
knew that the land companies originated this enterprise. I thought it 
was the camp-meeting people that began this enterprise, and that the 
land companies, mixing up a little of the worship of this world with 
their reverence for sacred things, went there and got possession of 
land, and undertook to make some money out of it. I thought the 
land companies were secondary, and I always supposed that one of 
the hardest pieces of work that my Methodist brethren would have to 
perform would be to convert the directors of these land companies. 

Now that brings me to say, — and I was diverted for the purpose of 
indulging in a little pleasantry, — that the complaints which are made 
here cannot be without foundation. I didn't open any dissatisfac- 
tion personally between the citizens of this territory which I repre- 
sent and the town of Edgartown. I meant to keep it all out as well 
as I could, because I thought I had a case upon the statistics, and 
upon the geograplry, and upon the general wants of the people resort- 
ing here, which would satisfy the committee. But you cannot keep 
these things out ; and the moment the witnesses began to talk, and 
Brother Bowman began to cross-examine, that moment the animosi- 
ties began to crop out. Mr. Bowman says these things are entirely 
unreasonable. Perhaps they are. It don't seem of very great 
importance to Brother Bowman to be a selectman of Edgartown, or 
a school-committeeman, or a highway surveyor ; and yet, to the 
community in which these gentlemen live, that is just as proper an 
object of ambition — either one of these places — as any other. 
They are most useful offices, most honorable offices ; and every man 
in his municipality, who has the capacity and the character to fill 
one of those offices, should have a fair chance. 

Now it is perfectly certain that this opposition to the incorporation 
of Cottage City is led by a little ring down at Edgartown village. 
They have held all the offices from time immemorial, and supposed 
they were born with the right to administer all the offices at Edgar- 
town which should cover the whole county. I don't know ; I cannot 
specify : but my impression is that Capt. Jernegan and Mr. Osborne 
and Judge Pease, and my other friend there, Richard L. Pease, Mr. 



14 

Kenniston, and all the other gentlemen remonstrating — every one of 
them — hold a place, and very properly hold it. I don't complain : 
thej- are all respectable men. I am not scolding about these men, as 
my brother did about my clients yesterday : only I say, that up in our 
neighborhood, where we have more people and more money than they 
have at Edgartown, it would have been pretty well if they could have 
remembered us in their distribution of town offices before last year. 
We never got any thing until after we went away from the State 
House last year with a black eye. After that, somebody in Cottage 
City was elected, I believe, to some place or other ; but that was 
about the time when we didn't care much whether we received an 
office or not. But, in the nature of things, it is not to be supposed 
that Edgartown will do any thing more for us than she is obliged to. 
Why should she? Why does she want to retain us within her 
borders? Simply because Cottage City is a nice milch cow ; simply 
because we pa}* Edgartown from seven to eight thousand dollars a 
year more than we receive from her. Now, if I were a citizen of 
Edgartown, I should go with the Edgartown people clear up to the 
handle. I should come up here ; I should employ Gen. Foster and 
Mr. Nichols and Mr. Young and everybody else ; and I should lobby 
everybody to prevent any such change as that : but it would not do 
any good. Mr. Bowman talks about lobbies, howls about lobbies. 

" I heard a lion in the lobby roar." 

Now I don't know much about the lobby, — not half as much as Brother 
Bowman, because he has been in the Legislature in modern times. I 
don't know exactly what he means Ijv a lobby. He finds a great 
deal of fault with our circular. The great criticism which Brother 
Bowman put upon that circular was, that it requested the party to 
whom it was addressed to see his senator or his representative, and 
post him up about this movement. Do you call that lobbying? is 
that lobbying ? Is there any impropriety in that ? What do I have a 
senator or representative for? I have got a measure before the Legis- 
ture. I vote for my representative, and he represents me in the one 
branch. How is he going to represent me unless he knows what I 
want? How is my senator going to know what I want unless I go 
and tell him? And suppose, instead of going myself, I employ Capt. 
Jernegan or Mr. Osborne to go and tell him. Is there any harm in 
that? is there any wickedness about that? If there is, we will have 
a week's devotion set apart to it next summer down at Cottage City. 
I sav there is nothing in that circular of which anybody is to be 



15 

ashamed, or which requires any defence ; and it is all the answer that 
my friends upon the other side have made to this case. Mr. Carpen- 
ter brought me that circular, —I mean, not the circular, but the table 
of statistics accompanying it, — and I examined it. It was not in the 
form that I wanted to use before the committee ; and I re-formed it, 
and put it into the form which I gave to you when I opened the case. 
Again : the charge is, that these gentlemen got up a false and ficti- 
tious statement by which to obtain signatures in favor of this measure 
to influence the committee and the Legislature. I say there is not a 
word of truth in it, and nobody will say so outside of the State 
House, outside of the committee-room, — not one word. Why, these 
gentlemen have too much personal character, in the first place, to risk 
themselves upon a false statement that could be detected in five min- 
utes. They said in that circular, as I recollect, that the town debt 
had not been reduced but $316 within a given period, and that there 
was no reason why it should not have been reduced, because the 
money had been appropriated to reduce it. Well, it turned out that 
there "was a vote appropriating $15,000 for the railroad, which they 
didn't discover on the town books, and something else, — I have for- 
gotten now, — which brought them into an apparent error. But I 
would like to know why the town of Edgartown should have built a 
railroad from Oak Bluffs to Katama at a cost of $15,000, and sell it 
for less than $400, and claim that it was done in the interests of the 
residents of Cottage City. Everybody knows better than that, and 
they know it ; and they know that every appropriation of any magni- 
tude—the appropriation for concreting the beach-road — was done in 
the interests of the land companies and the village of Edgartown, and 
not in the interests of the people that I represent. The railroad from 
Oak Bluffs to Katama was built, in the interest of that corporation, 
to divert the people from Cottage City to Katama. All well enough, 
but not in the interest of the people whom I represent. If they could 
have got up another colony down at Katama, I would have been very 
glad to have had it accomplished. I would be delighted to have any 
thing done that shall relieve our Edgartown friends. I have a great 
respect for them ; but I don't want them to charge it to some poor 
widow woman whom I represent, who owns a cottage-lot at $75, when 
it is got up in the interest of the corporation at the other end of the 
road. It was utterly unjustifiable ; and, if they will find any applica- 
tion on behalf of the residents of the territory which I represent for 
that appropriation, I would like to consider it. And so of the 
amount expended for concrete upon the beach-road, which was done 
upon the application of Mr. E. P. Carpenter. 



16 

Now the fact is that we own the largest amount of property, and 
we have to pay the largest amount of taxes. And they do exactly 
what is human nature, — allow us just as much as is necessary, as they 
think we can get along with, and the rest they put into their own 
pockets ; that is to say, the rest goes for the benefit of the town of 
Edgartown in general. Well, that cannot be helped : that is human 
nature. 

Now I don't put my case upon any ground of dissatisfaction on 
the part of Mr. Luce or Mr. Norris or Capt. Dias or anybody 
else. They live in Eastville, and my friends seem to have a great 
hostility to Kastville. That grows out of the fact that these gentle- 
men live there. They live there, and they are pretty respectable 
men, — as respectable as the Edgartown men. I don't claim any thing 
more for them. But Mr. Norris has been sheriff of the county, — and 
you have seen them all, — and they are all respectable men. They 
happen to represent the people who own the property in Cottage 
City, and that brings them into the fore-front of this fight, and there- 
fore they are assailed by m} T friend upon the other side ; and when 
they are attacked, and when they are asked the reasons why they want 
this change made, they go on and tell }'ou. Well, the}' are of some 
account. You will all agree that to them, and to the people whom I' 
represent, they are of very great importance, because we have got a 
colony there which must be cared for ; and we think it will be better 
cared for by the people who are under our control, than by those who 
are seven miles awa}\ And nobody has charged them, that I know 
of, with any thing more than exaggeration. Mr. Bowman thought 
they slightly exaggerated yesterday ; but I guess the exaggeration is 
about an even thing upon the one side and upon the other. 

M} r friend says there is no incompatibility. Well, I don't know 
what you mean by incompatibility. It has a legal definition as be- 
tween husband and wife. But if he means that there can ever be 
any peace between this locality which I represent and the town of 
Edgartown, then there is an incompatibility, and this contest will go 
on until the Legislature gives us a bill, or until the colony is given 
up. If that is incompatibility, then I claim that it is established. 

It is quite immaterial whether Mr. Norris pays $10 tax .or $20 tax. 
Mr. Norris and Capt. Luce and Capt. Dias, and the other gentlemen 
who are here, — Mr. Willett and Mr. Hatfield and those men, — are 
men of intelligence and men of character ; and it does not depend 
upon the amount of silver which chinks in their pockets whether the}' 
are to represent the non-residents of Cottage City or not. My 



IT 

friend sneered at Mr. Hatfield because he could not build a church : 
he thought that was all theoretical, all nonsense. Maybe ; but it is 
all real to Mr. Hatfield : he believes it. and lie always will believe it ; 
and he will come here next year, and tell the Committee on Towns in 
the Legislature of 1880 the same story that he has told here this 
year, and somebody will believe him some time. 

Now my friend went into a tabulated statement to show that we 
cost them more than Ave paid to them. It is not true ; but, if so, 
why don't you let us go? If we are nothing but a burden upon the 
town of Edgartown, why should we not be allowed to depart? We 
have shown that we are able to pay our own bills. We have put 
upon the stand here intelligent men, intelligent enough to manage 
the affairs of a new municipality. Why should not we be allowed to 
go and take care of ourselves, and not be obliged to go to Edgartown, 
seven miles, whenever we want any legislation for our benefit, and 
there to get it or to be spurned, as the case may be, because we are 
in a minorit}' and they alwa3 T s can govern and control us ? 

Now it is not a question of public necessity. My friend sa^s we 
are bound to prove a case of public necessity, like a case for taking- 
land under the right of eminent domain. It is not any such question : 
it is a question of policy. Can you create a new town which shall be 
for the advantage of the people residing upon that territory, and 
thereby increase the wealth of the Commonwealth, without injuring 
the old town from which the new town is to be taken? If you can, 
— if you thereby accommodate the people in the new town without 
injury to the old town, — then I submit, Mr. Chairman, you are 
bound to do it. It is a pure question of policy, not of removing a 
neighbor's landmark. Coming back to the question of Avhat you 
mean in the Constitution by the words "common welfare:" we 
don't give them the poor part of the town ; we don't give them any 
thing that they have created. We simply ask to keep what we have 
made ourselves ; and the figures show that we don't affect the power, 
the capacity, of the town of Edgartown to manage its municipal 
affairs as well in the future as she has in the past. We are not a 
company of rich people. I don't so understand it. 1 understand the 
great beauty of this enterprise, — while there are some rich people in 
it undoubtedly, that the means of spending a few months in a com- 
fortable way, under religious influences, in a healthy atmosphere, are 
enjoyed by numbers of people who together cannot aggregate thou- 
sands of dollars. And I know them : I know the Lowell people, the 
Adamses who were here, and Captain Howe, whom I examined, 



18 

Captain Damrell, and the whole class of men who come here to 
represent the non-residents. They are not rich men : they are good 
men, strong men, valuable men ; but they don't go down there be- 
cause they have rich equipages, and drive up and down the beach- 
road upon the concrete. That is not what they go there for ; and 
they don't carry their teams down there, because they don't own 
them. I never knew Captain Damrell owned but one horse, and that 
belonged to the city of Boston. 

Now, then, I submit, Mr. Chairman, in the first place, that we have 
proved a case ; in the second place, that the people demand it ; in 
the third place, that there are grievances ; and, in the fourth place, 
that it is in conformity to public policy ; and, in the fifth place, that 
it is not unjust to Edgartown ; and, in the sixth place, that it is a non- 
resident matter, and they, the non-residents, are to be considered, — 
thus reversing the propositions of my learned friend upon the other 
side. 

Mr. Chairman, I have said, and I am sorry I have been so long 
about it, pretty much all I wish to say. I have no doubt that I have 
said that which was of minor importance, and omitted many things 
which were of greater importance ; but that happens to ever}' public, 
speaker. I am free to say that my heart is very much in this mat- 
ter. I never heard of it until a few weeks ago, and then, upon 
investigation, I thought, upon the figures which I gave to you at the 
opening, that these parties were entitled to their bill. And I can 
see, I think I can see in the future, with a municipality there devoted 
to its own interests and not interfering with Edgartown, an institu- 
tion the like of which the world never saw, which shall contribute to 
the health and the strength and the comfort, and the intellectual and 
moral and religious improvement, of all our people ; and I want it 
accomplished. " And there shall be a tabernacle for a shadow in 
the daytime from the heat, and for a place of refuge, and for a cover 
from storms and from rain." 



19 



APPENDIX. 



The following table was used in the opening and at the hearing, 
and I believe is substantially correct : — 

There are upon the territory which it is proposed to incorporate, 
Feb. 1, 1879,— 

Families 150 

Those entitled to vote 132 

Children under fifteen years of age ..... 140 

Cottages and dwellings ........ 767 

Taxable buildings 1,058 

Churches 3 

Schools 2 

Hotels 15 

Grocery-stores 7 

Markets 2 

Blacksmiths' shops 2 

Livery-stables 6 

Steam-mills 2 

"With the various mechanics found in any town or village necessary to 
supply the wants of the people. 

The valuation of Edgartown, May 1, 1878, is . $2,043,525 00 

of Cottage City same time . . 1,197,435 00 

of Edgartown after division will be . 846,090 00 

of Edgartown in 1865 was . . 1,035,467 00 

The total assessments of the town in the three years, 

1876, 1877, 1878 97,373 27 

Of this amount Cottage City paid . , . . 59,505 89 



20 



Cottage City is to be charged for the same period as follows : — 

Her portion of State and county tax and of the ir 

on town debt ($35,063.72) . 
Expended for police ..... 

for poor (estimated) 

for schools and school-houses 

for highways and bridges 

for special road to Highland Wharf 

for incidentals .... 

for her part of salaries of town officers 

for her part of sinking fund . 

Total 



$21,427 83 


1,153 


00 


1,000 


00 


2,062 


00 


2,930 


00 


2,600 


00 


672 


00 


1,150 


00 


3,666 


67 


$36,661 


50 



Showing that Cottage City has paid into the town treasury over the 
amount expended upon her territory, or, in other words, a net gain to 
the old town Of $22,844.39, or, per annum, of (last three years) 
$7,614.78. 

Last year a division would have given Cottage City, on the basis of 
the then valuation, about £§ of the town debt ; this year the fraction 
is about ±1, or an increase of about $1,800. 

There are 19 cities and 306 towns in the Commonwealth. 

The present taxable acreage of Edgartown is 15,489 acres; the 
taxable acreage of proposed new town, about 3,000 acres ; the line 
adopted by the committee gives an acreage of 4,500, or greater 
than Chelsea, Somerville, Nahant, Marblehead, Arlington, Everett, 
Provincetown, and others. 

The population of the proposed town was, on Feb. 1, 1879, 502 ; 
or more than the towns of New Ashford, Mount Washington, Mashpee, 
Gay Head and Gosnold (both in Dukes County), Monroe, Leyden, 
Shutesbury, Rowe, Heath, Holland, Montgomery, Tolland, Pelham, 
Prescott, Westhampton, Boxborough, Carlisle, Dunstable, and Hull. 



Cottage City vs. Edgartown. 

STATEMENT OF THE PETITIONERS' CASE. 



To Senators and Representatives. 



The undersigned, a commit tee on behalf of 
the petitioners for a division of the town of 
Edgartown, have the honor to present the 
following statement, of their ease, prefaced 
by a brief explanation of the circumstances 
that have produced the evils from which they 
now seek relief, through action of the Legis- 
lature. In the northern part of this town 
there is a sandy, uncultivated peninsula, form- 
ed by the waters of yineyard Sound on the 
east, and by Vineyard Haven harbor and 
"Lagoon Pond" on the west, the area being, 
in the aggregate, some three square miles, 
and situated six miles from the village of Ed- 
gartown, the distance intervening being made 
up of ponds, marshes, and dull, flat stretches 
of sandy fields. Through the centre of this 
peninsula there is a ridge of moderately high 
elevation, and upon this, and a portion of the 
easterly slope, there are large numbers of 
scrub oak trees. The growth near the shores 
of the sound is somewhat larger and of more 
sturdy character, and beneath the grateful 
shade, made by the interlacing branches of 
the largest of these trees, gathered, many 
years ago, in the summer time, a few pious 
spirits, of the Methodist denomination, to 
hold, for a brief season, a camp meeting. 
Under the auspices of the originators, natives 
of the town, the growth of these annually re- 
curring camps was slow, but, iu course of 
time, visitors from the main, sympathizers in 
this primitive style of worship, were attrac- 
ted thither, and there soon developed a won- 
derful expansion of growth, both in numbers 
and religious sentiment. 

The movement now took on a new aspect, 
and from being a purely local affair it grew 



to one of national importance in the de- 
nomination, and the tide of travel that an- 
nually set in toward Martha's Vineyard 
sought better accommodations by the substi- 
tution of steamers for sailing vessels, the 
building of landings at two different points, 
and other conveniences suited to the require- 
ments of the demand created by a new order 
of things. It is well to state here, as a fact 
to he borne in .mind, that, aside from some 
eight or ten houses at Eastville, on the Vine- 
yard Haven side of Cottage City, the territo- 
ry proposed to be included in the new town 
some twenty years ago, and even up to a 
much more recent period, was scarcely mar- 
ketable. The land certainly could not be 
tilled with profit, and it is even said that it 
was exempt from taxation for a long time. 
At all events, the locality winch now consti- 
tutes Oak Bluffs, but a short time prior to the 
organization of the Oak Bluffs Land Co., was 
leased for the sum of $1 per season. With 
the increasing numbers that annually came to 
the city for the summer, the matter of pro- 
viding for man's inner wants, became one of 
importance. Provisions and produce were 
brought from the main land, and were neces- 
sarily expensive. To obviate this, it was 
thought that a road should be built to Vine- 
yard Haven, so that dependence might be 
placed upon the farmers of the interior of the 
island for the necessary supply. But this 
was to bring Vineyard Haven much nearer than 
Edgartown was, even in a straight line, the 
distance to the latter being six miles, and to 
Vineyard Haven, by the new road, only two 
and one-half. The inbred jealousy between 
the I wo villages, would not permit Edgar- 



town's sanction of this much-needed conven- 
ience. Petitions to the latter town, asking 
that it would assist in building the road, 
were hardly listened to. At last relief was 
sought of the Legislature, and, after a hard 
fight, the General Court passed a special act, 
which empowered the courts to appoint com- 
missioners, who should build the road and 
assess the expenses on the towns interested. 

The expressed objection on the part of Ed- 
gartown, was, that the new road was not 
needed, and how valid this objection was, 
appears when it is stated that in a siugle 
month, soon after its completiou, 6000 teams 
and 20,000 people made use of it. 

This was the first difficulty of a serious na- 
ture with Edgartown, and is important in 
this conuection as showing the animus of 
the people of the old town against the new- 
comers. The new road having demonstrated 
its necessity, a fact of which Edgartown 
people, it would seem, must have known, a 
correlative fact of infinite importance soon 
manifested itself to their minds, and that 
was, that Vineyard Haven was getting all the 
benefit of local traffic. At the same time, 
too, Katama, just below Edgartown village, 
on the ocean side of the island, was in the 
market with its house lots, in which many of 
the wealthy villagers had invested a good 
deal of money. To get people from Cottage 
City to Katama, ami incidentally to Edgar- 
town itself, became a serious problem. 
Some Boston capitalists, too, were interested 
in Katama lands, and they suggested a beach 
road from Cottage City to the village, and 
thence over the fields to the terminus at Ka- 
tama. Some of the leading politicians of 
Edgartown thought their influence in the 
matter was worth sundry house lots at Oak 
Blufl's, but the capitalists referred to did not 
believe in that way of doing things, and de- 
clined the influence of a lobby in town meet- 
ing. However, the prospect of a rapidly- 
growing city to tax, and the promised em- 
ployment of the poll tax voters and old 
horses of the town, which was guaranteed 
by special vote of a town meeting, stimula- 



ted the people to support the measure, and it 
was resolved that a road nine miles long 
should be built from Oak Bluffs to the " sound- 
ing sea." Engineers estimated a 40-foot ma- 
cadamized road would cost $40,000, and offer- 
ed to build it at that price. A responsible 
party in the town agreed to do the same for 
.$30,000, but "those in authority," having in 
mind the foregoing promises, thought the 
town could pay more, and at last the much- 
coveted road was built, and a debt of some 
$60,000 was contracted therefor. As a means 
of getting people away from Cottage City 
this road was not a success, and so the town, 
the following year, voted more money for 
another, and this time .$15,000 was sunk in a 
narrow-gauge railroad. This, adjoining and 
running parallel to the Beach road, has ren- 
dered the latter useless and even dangerous 
as a pleasure drive, for which the leading 
burghers of Edgartown would have you think 
it was specially built. The shallowness of 
this pretext is apparent when it is remem- 
bered that the " pleasure drive," as such, was 
destroyed by building the railroad the year 
following the completion of the former. 
And if further evidence were needed to 
prove that the road was never built for the 
benefit of the north end, it appears in the en- 
tire absence of any petition from the voters 
of that section in favor of the project, as 
well as in the fact that they spoke and voted 
against it in town meeting. 

Of course the villagers, put upon their de- 
fense, attempt to show that their dealings 
with Cottage City have been in all respects 
equitable and just, as would be expected. 
But their arguments are specious and made 
up of statements and figures perverted to 
their convenience. They say, that they have 
paid out for concreting in Cottage City $11,- 
400 against $3100 in the village; true, but of 
the first named amount $7000 was spent in 
concreting the Oak Blurts end of the Beach 
Road, and it was the only item of any benefit 
to Cottage City out of an expenditure of $75,- 
000 by the town. Again, $L'600 of the above 
amount was expended to build a new road 



from the old post office to the Highland 
Landing. This was done last spring upon re- 
turning from the hearing before the legisla- 
tive committee, and was the price paid to 
still the opposition of certain prominent -gen- 
tlemen in the Camp Meeting Association and 
Highland Company, who had formerly given 
their support to the project of division, and 
of this there is abundant evidence. Any and 
all arguments which the village people adduce 
are as easily disposed of as these and they 
are simply mentioned to convey an idea of 
their whole case. But granting that these 
expenditures last stated are for the sole bene- 
fit of Cottage City, it is but begging the ques- 
tion, for the true test is, not how much has 
been spent, but what ought in justice to have 
been spent, in this locality? The solution of 
this question appears in the table appended, 
which shows the leceipts and expenditures of 
the town for tlie past six years : 

Total assessments for six years, $196,329.5 



x ye 

Cottage City pays of this 



$119,979.20 



Cost of Cottage City to the town in the same time : 
Interest, State and County Tax, $6S.ooo; our 

part $41,554.00 

Police ..... 2,Soo.oo 

Poor (estimate) . . . Q00.00 

Schools and School Houses . 5.565.09 

Incidentals .... 3,ooo.oo 

. Sundry items not included in Inci- 
dentals .... 3,000.00 
Town Officers . . . 3>°55-47 
Highways .... 9,630.00 



Total Cost . 
Net gain to Edgartown in six years 



$69,504.56 



$5o.474-64 



This balance in our favor is sufficient to pay 
Cottage City's portion of the town debt. 
This much the town has recklessly expended 
for the old village, outvoting the remonstrants 
from Cottage City in these expenditures as it 
has in everything that Cottage City has want- 
ed for itself. But, it may be asked, what 
claim has Cottage City to object to these 
measures, and why does it demand to be made 
a town by itself ? Briefly, because from a 
tract of valueless land, it has become a terri- 
tory within whose limits there is about $1,- 
200,000 of taxable property ; because it pays 
over one-half of the taxes; because it has 
a minority of votes, and is always out-voted 
in town meeting, and is never enabled to get 



its proportionate share of the town's expen- 
ditures; because it is distant six miles from 
Edgartown village: because of the shameful 
extravagance in voting away money, for the 
misgovernmeut of the past ten years, and for 
other reasons that will appear in the facts 
and figures appended; 

there are 1200 houses and some twenty or 
more hotels in Cottage City; 30,000 people are 
present oftentime in the height of the season ; 
the town gives the camp-meeting authorities an 
average of .$110 for police per year, and they 
pay out of their own pockets 8230.50 ; the town 
has always refused to provide any adequate 
means for extinguishing fire, to which the 
city is particularly liable, and the citizens 
have formed engine companies amoug them- 
selves and are at their own expense for 
everything needful therefor; the total valu 
ation of the town is $2,013,525; non-resident 
property in Cottage City, $875,520; resident 
property, $321,915; total valuation of Cot- 
tage City, $1,197,435; of the old village, 
$84(5,090; 111 persons are assessed as resi- 
dents in Cottage City, and 25 more ought 
to be, but the assessors won't assess them ; 
valuatiou of resident real estate has been 
diminished $179,250 in five years, and non- 
resident increased in same time $8100, and this 
during the hardest of hard times ; in thirteen 
years 39 Selectmen of the township have been 
chosen, of which number Cottage City has had 
four; 39 School committee men were chosen, 
of whom Cottage City hasn't had any; out 
of 39 Assessors in this time Cottage City has 
had seven ; permanent population of the pro- 
posed new town 502 ; we have three churches, 
two schools, seven groceries, two markets, 
two blacksmith shops, six livery stables, two 
steam mills, drug stores, shoemakers, wheel- 
wrights, carpenters, painters, etc., everything 
that goes to make upa community; there are 
306 towns and 19 cities in the state, and as a 
town, in the matter of valuation, we shall 
stand No. 142 ; as to real estate valuation No. 
94 ; as to population and voters there are 20 
towns containing less ; our acreage is about 
3000, or greater than Chelsea, Somerville, Na- 
hant, Proviucetown, etc; the two sections of 



the town are already divided geographically, as 
of the proposed boundary line more than 
three-fourths is water ; 

we believe our interests are not properly 
guarded by the other section ; that what this 
section most needs it does not obtain at the 
hands of the present town : and what it does 
not require nor ask for is forced upon it and 
it is made to bear unjust burdens in conse- 
quence ; 

we believe a- community commingling with 
the non-residents annually and learning their 
wants and wishes will be far more ready to 
listen to their requests and admonitions than 
a community which they do not know, having 
interests discordant with theirs ; 

one of the results of a division of the towu 
will be to put men living in the immediate 
neighborhood in charge of town affairs, whose 
interests are identical with non-residents, and 
who will be more judicious in their manage- 
ment of the affairs of the new towu ; 

besides, wasteful extravagance in outlays for 
needed improvements will be checked, the 
residents' interests being iu harmony with 
that of the non-residents. 

At the end of the fiscal year 1S72-3, the net 

indebtedness of the town was . . . $SS, 942.66 

At the end of the fiscal year 1877-S, the net 

indebtedness was SS.626.66 



Showing in the 5 years a total reduction of 



During the same time there -ivas n 
the reduction of the debt about 



■d/or 



fcji6.< 



$24,000 



The sinking fund will reduce the debt some- 
what more than the sum given above — it 
being about $9000 at the present time. 

The annual appropriation for the sinking 
fuud has, however, been distinct from that Tor 



the reduction of the debt, and only affects 
the net indebtedness. But it does not ac- 
count for any portion of the .$24,000. 

Still further, take the items of Schools and 
Poor separately : — 



Schools and School Houses, — amount raised 

since 1871 $28,648.87 



Of this Cottage City pays . . . $17,507.60 

There has been expended in Cottage City in 
the same time (including- the cost of a 
new School House, $2200, nearly one- 
third of the whole outlay) . . , $7,S9 S -S7 

Net gain to Edgartown on this item . $9,909.03 

Support of Poor, — amount raised since 1S71, $24,152.00 

Of this amount Cottage City pays, $14,759.47 
Cost of our poor for same time (es- 
timate) 1,200.00 



Gain to Edgartown 



$■3059-47 



These, then, and many more, are the rea- 
sons why the taxpayers in Cottage City have 
petitioned the Legislature to be incorporated 
into a new town, and for a precedent they 
cite the division of Adams and North Adams, 
of Dartmouth five times, Bridgewater, Hamp- 
ton, Holbrook, and numerous other towns in 
the State, for much less reason than they ask 
to be set off from the town of Edgartown. 

For the "Committee of Thirtv," 



Oliver Ames, 

J. W. WlLLETT, 

I. N. Luce, 
Joseph Dias, 
Howes Norris, 



Executive 
Committee. 



Cm i'a(;e City, 
Martha's Vineyard, Feb., 1879. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 

■■111 



014 014 




